1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and a method for supplying a plurality of circuit components, one by one.
2. Related Art Statement
The above-indicated sort of circuit-component supplying system and method are widely used for, e.g., mounting circuit components on a circuit substrate, such as a printed circuit board, and thereby producing an electric circuit (e.g., an electronic circuit). The circuit-component supplying system includes a supplying device which stores the circuit components and supplies the components, one by one; a holding head which holds a circuit component; a head moving device which moves the holding head so that the head receives a circuit component from the supplying device and holds the component. The holding head includes a movable member which is moved by the head moving device; and a component holder which is held by the movable member. Meanwhile, there are various sorts of circuit components which have various shapes and sizes. Thus, it is difficult for a single sort of holding head to hold all the sorts of circuit components to be mounted on the circuit substrate. To solve this problem, it has been practiced that a plurality of sorts of component holders are prepared, one of the holders which is suitable for each of the components is selected, and the selected holder is held by the movable member. In this way, a plurality of sorts of holding heads are prepared.
There is known a method in which one of the above-indicated component holders is automatically changed with another holder. In this known method, however, the components holders are stored in, and supplied from, a holder supplying device which is provided independent of a component supplying device which stores and supplies the circuit components. Thus, the known method needs both the component supplying device and the holder supplying device, and a circuit-component supplying system for carrying out the method suffers from a complex construction and a high production cost. In the case where circuit components of one sort that needs the use of a first sort of component holder are supplied and then circuit components of another sort that needs the use of a second sort of component holder are supplied, the changing of the two holders requires the movable member to be moved in a manner different from the manner in which the movable member is moved for the first sort of component holder to receive and hold each of the circuit components of one sort. This leads to lowering the efficiency of the circuit-component supplying operation as a whole that includes the component-holder changing operation.